Various UE4 related questions

Marcus_Aseth

Hi guys,needed this topic for all the doubts I have,I'll put them all in this place

Todays doubt is regarding this tutorial page about baking normals for UE4 https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Content/Types/Textures/NormalMaps/Creation/index.html

The thing that gives me doubts is the guide saying "The important points are smoothing groups, and tangents & binormals." but in the example image "tangents & binormals" is not checked,even if mentioned as "important"... is this a mistake in the image? Or is important to have it off while exporting the low poly? Let me know pls :thumbup:

LMP

Unreal will calculate the tangents and binormals, if you do export withthose turned on, make sure that you change the import settings to import the tangents and binormals. But, I've generally never needed to export with tangents and binormals on, I only dothat when something is screwing up and I can't get anything else to work.

Marcus_Aseth

Thanks LMP :thumbup:

New question for this day :poly124:

When using worldmachine to generate the Heightmap of the Landscape,do people also usualy generate a normal map for it from inside WM? My problem is that after I have my Landscape in place inside UE4 of course I want to change something,therefore I modify the terrain directly inside UE4 but this clearly would end up breaking the Normal map of it...therefore,there is a workaround for it? Like is it possible to have UE4 updating the normal map and keeping it synced with the heightmap each time I sculpt in the terrain?

Finalhart

You could generate a normal map from the Heightmap from WM but i would take advantage of the landscape system and create a material for it, it would look better. This is a nice guide with a lot of tricks for landscape, it's super useful http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TerrainAdvancedTextures.html

Marcus_Aseth

Thanks Finalhart,though I couldn't help noticing the guide is for UE3 Does it still apply? :poly122:

Finalhart

Yea, there are more posibilities in UE4 even you can use now a lot of textures for a material which is good for terrain. Those are tricks and tips that can apply to UE3 or UE4, you can still replicate the same results.

wes.sau

In regard to syncing up height changes from UE4 to WM: I don't know if they have it for UE4, but in UE3/UDK very frequently I would export the heightmap from sections of landscape. It was done with the component gizmo, it also allowed to export just the heightmap, or additionally with all the layer masks. I did this more for eroding and other WM effects on top of painted layouts from UDK, not for making a normal map. For that coarse of a normal, I've found it best to just let the landscape slope maps do that work, and instead use normal maps for smaller detail.

Marcus_Aseth

wes.sau wrote: »

I've found it best to just let the landscape slope maps do that work, and instead use normal maps for smaller detail.

@wes.sau: I see,I'll try the same,thx for the info

Marcus_Aseth

Todays questions: I'm looking forward into importing a character into UE4 but I'm still ignorant about rigging/animation and so on,I'll learn that stuff on the process ofc (now I'm still in the modeling phase) but I would like to have a preview of what I should expect during this project,so here some questions

1)My character must have parts of clothing that should move in the engine according to the character movements (let's say a mantle or a skirt). How this kind of behaviour is (or must be) handled inside the engine? Am i supposed to rig let's say the skirt and animate a movement of it that plays whenever I move my character in a given direction? Or is it possible to have it using some physics system inside UE4 so that the skirt behave physically correctly during a movement or when it hit the character leg, without having me faking the movement behaviour for each possible direction? If yes, the skirt would have to be a separate mesh,or my character could still be a single mesh with separate elements?

2)There are any other option that I am ignorant about? Can you guys point to some videos that can teach me the various possibilities or ways of doing it that I have at my disposal?

3)Hairs. What possibilities there are regarding hairs and "ponytails"? Correct me if I'm wrong,but the usual workflow consist in modeling the base body of hair and then adding "hair planes/cards" to fake a more convincing silouette for it,instead of just having the flat polygons? What about the animation of a ponytail? Same as question 1, I would have to rig it and animate it or would be possible to have it directly/ physically responding to the character movements?

4)There are other options availables for hairs?

That's all I would like to know for now

ZacD

1) Yes you can do cloth simulation in UE4, there's an example of it in the example content projects. https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/ContentExamples/Cloth/index.html

2) You can also use jiggle/spring bones instead of cloth simulation, it's more commonly used in games, at least in the last generation, it's easier to control and manage.

3) You can use jiggle/spring bones for the hair as well.

4) In terms of modeling and looks or animation and physics?


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dY9PS7oIkc[/ame]

Wasp

ZacD wrote: »

1) Yes you can do cloth simulation in UE4, there's an example of it in the example content projects. https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/ContentExamples/Cloth/index.html

2) You can also use jiggle/spring bones instead of cloth simulation, it's more commonly used in games, at least in the last generation, it's easier to control and manage.

3) You can use jiggle/spring bones for the hair as well.

4) In terms of modeling and looks or animation and physics?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dY9PS7oIkc

I've worked with spring bones, and they are extremely snappy and annoying when blending between animations; I thoroughly recommend working with clothing instead.

Marcus_Aseth

Thx you both for the infos guys :thumbup:

ZacD wrote: »

4) In terms of modeling and looks or animation and physics?

Actually both :poly124:

Also for now I'm only trying to get an overview so later on I know on what to focus my research/study,I don't want to dig too much yet because for now I'm only focused on anatomy until I get the sculpting done,but basically what a "jiggle/spring bones" does? From the video I could tell it added the bounciness to the boobs,which is always important :poly124:

Also with the cloth simulation inside UE4, is it meant to be used with basically flat planes surfaces like a flag or it would also work correctly with something that has thickness,like a 5mm thick piece of leather?